Common digital cameras use an image sensor with an oblong rectangular pixel array. Such digital cameras are used to capture images of landscape orientation, where the image width is greater than the image height, or portrait orientation, where the image width is less than the image height. A typical image sensor pixel array has aspect ratio four to three, such that the one side length of the pixel array is a factor of 4/3 longer than the other side length of the pixel array.
Today, nearly all mobile phones include at least one image sensor such that the mobile phone can function as a digital camera for taking photos and recording videos. Handheld mobile phones are usually held such that the display is in a portrait orientation, which means that the image sensor captures images of a scene in portrait orientation. To get a photo or video in landscape orientation, the mobile phone is rotated by ninety degrees such that the display is in a landscape orientation. Landscape orientation is preferred for recording of videos, since video playback usually happens on a landscape orientation display such as a television or a computer screen. For this reason, standard video formats are horizontal.